Leaked document raises questions over border checks

A leaked document from the UK Border Agency has raised fresh questions about
Theresa May’s role in the relaxation of passport checks on foreigners
arriving in Britain and about the account of the affair the Home Secretary
gave MPs.

Home Secretary Theresa May makes a statement on border controls in the House of CommonsPhoto: PA

The two-page document was issued on July 28 to managers in the UKBA Border Force. It was distributed after Mrs May authorised a “pilot” of new rules that would reduce the checks applied to the passports of foreign nationals arriving in the UK.

In the document, UK Border Agency Interim Operational Instruction Issue BF 01.29.11, was written by Tom Dowdall, the Border Force’s head of operations and performance, who reported directly to Brodie Clarke, the now suspended head of the Border Force.

JUSTIFICATION

Mrs May told the House of Commons that the “pilot” had been run for security reasons, to see if Border Force resources could be better focused on individuals who might pose a threat.

“The desire was for more risk-based assessments” she said. However, the instruction suggests that the rules were relaxed to prevent excessive queuing among passengers arriving in the UK.

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The pilot will allow managers “to meet the demands of peak summer traffic”, the order says. Relaxing passport checks will “avert a more serious or critical impact in the port infrastructure arising from excessive queries ie a baggage crisis; risk to passenger health and safety or good order in the arrival hall, disruption to flight schedules and the passengers being held on the aircraft”.

SCOPE

The Home Secretary told MPs that the pilot meant that border staff were allowed “under limited circumstances” to admit European entrants without checking the biometric chip in their passports.

The chip holds detailed data about a holder’s appearance which — unlike a physical photograph — is almost impossible to forge.

Mrs May said: “The pilot also allowed, under limited circumstances, Border Force officials the discretion to judge when to open the biometric chip — which contains a second photograph and no further information — on the passports of EEA [European Economic Area] nationals.” In fact, the instruction to staff suggests a blanket order not to check chips. It reads: “We will cease routinely checking the chip within EEA passports.”

'FURTHER MEASURES’

In the House of Commons, Mrs May said that the UK Border Force was given clearly defined instructions about relaxing entry checks. There was to be no move beyond those limits: “I told officials explicitly that the pilot was to go no further than we had agreed.”

However, the document suggests that senior managers at the Border Force could give authority for local staff at ports and airports to “take further measures” and go beyond the original instructions.

It says: “If, for whatever reason, it is considered necessary to take further measures, beyond those listed above, local managers must escalate to the Border Force Duty Director to seek authority for their proposed action.”

Home Office officials later described that section as a long-standing health and safety measure allowing changes when terminals become overcrowded. It was “not part of the pilot,” an official said.

NON-EUROPEANS

Mrs May suggested that the pilot she authorised would not alter the way in which border staff treated passport holders from outside the European Economic Area. She said: “Nobody would be waved through. Visa nationals’ fingerprints checked. All non-EEA nationals’ biometric chip checked. All adults run past the Warnings Index [for terrorism and illegal immigration]. All non-EEA nationals run past the Warnings Index.”

The leaked instruction suggests that during the pilot, borders staff were told to reduce their scrutiny of “visa-holders”. Since EEA nationals are not required to have visas to enter the UK, the term can only refer to non-European passport-holders.

Borders staff were told they should “only endorse the document and question visa-holders, when there is perceived to be a risk.” The Home Office later insisted this was standard practice that had been in place before the pilot began.